Silicatein-mediated synthesis of amorphous silicates and siloxanes and use thereof

Abstract

Silicatein is an enzyme of silicate-forming organisms used for the synthesis of their silicate scaffold. The present invention relates to the use of highly-expressed and highly active recombinant silicatein, silicatein isolated from natural sources after gene induction as well as silicatein-fusion proteins for the synthesis of amorphous silicon dioxide (silicic acids and silicates), siloxanes as well as modification of these compounds and their technical use.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]Silicon is the second-most element of the earth's crust (more than 80% of the earth's crust consist out of silicates) and is present in all forms of different compounds. Silicon compounds do not only represent most of the species of this class of minerals, but are also very important from an economical point of view. They are used in large scales and diverse forms. Glass, porcelain, emaillie, clay products, cement and water glass are technically important materials that consist out of silicates. The catalytic properties of some of the silicates are used synthetically. Their versatile uses are further expanded, if other elements, in particular aluminium, occupy some of the lattice positions that are otherwise occupied by silicon. Feldspars and zeolithes, for example, belong to these alumo silicates; the importance of the latter is based in particular in their molecular sieve and ions exchange properties. Al- and Ca-silicates have become important as f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0035]In contrast, with the aid of specific enzymes, organisms (in particular sponges and algae) are able to form silicate scaffolds under natural conditions, i.e. at low temperature and low pressure. The advantages of this pathway are: high specificity, coordinated formation, adjustability, and the possibility for synthesizing nanostructures.

[0038]One possible approach is the synthesis of the recombinant protein (recombinante silicatein) with the aid of the known cDNA- or gene-sequence. This allows for the effective enzymatic synthesis of silicates.

[0040]By way of production of a specific polyclonal antibody and subsequent coupling to a solid phase, a fast and effective affinity-chromatography purification of the enzyme can be achieved.

Problems solved by technology

Some of the above-mentioned silicon compounds can only be produced in a cost-intensive manner or are present only in small amounts as mineral resources, respectively, and can therefore only be isolated with considerable effort.

The process of the chemical synthesis of silicates requires drastic conditions, such as high pressure and high temperature.

Nevertheless, this results in the problem that the isolation and the purification of the enzyme (silicatein) is time-consuming and laborious, and that only relatively low amounts can be achieved.

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